Russell Brand appeared in Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Friday 2nd May and was granted bail over historic rape and sexual assault charges. During the brief hearing, the court heard allegations that Brand raped a woman in a hotel room following a Labour Party Conference. It was claimed that after meeting that day at a theatrical event in Bournemouth in 1999, the woman went to the bathroom and Brand removed some of his clothing and later pushed her on the bed, removed her underwear and raped her.

He was charged in April with one count each of rape, indecent assault and oral rape, as well as two counts of sexual assault, relating to four separate women. The incidents are alleged to have taken place between 1999 and 2005 in Bournemouth and the Westminster area of London. Brand has denied all the allegations and said he is looking forward to clearing his name.

Prior to this, Brand shot to fame in the late noughties and helped shape pop culture during that period. He burst onto screens as the host of Big Brother's Big Mouth from 2004 to 2007, starred in Hollywood films, married and divorced one of the world's most famous pop stars, and caused one of the biggest scandals in the BBC's history.

During the height of his career, Brand, 49, hosted The Russell Brand Show on BBC Radio 2 on a Saturday night, regularly pulling in a whopping 400,000 listeners each episode. However, Brand caused uproar when he and Jonathan Ross left inappropriate and offensive voicemail messages for the actor Andrew Sachs, best known for playing Manuel in Fawlty Towers.

The messages, which referenced a sexual relationship between Brand and Sachs' granddaughter Georgina Baillie, were pre-recorded but broadcast on 18 October 2008. The public backlash was swift, resulting in more than 500 complaints, plus a letter from Sachs' agent, Meg Poole

The crude messages included Ross, 64, saying that Brand had “f***ed” Sachs' granddaughter, and they joked that the actor, then 78, might kill himself as a result. The messages were sent after the Fawlty Towers actor allegedly didn't answer his phone for a pre-arranged interview. In one voice message, Ross said: "He f***ed your granddaughter". Brand then denied this, adding: "Oh no, I have revealed I know her name."

The two then discussed how Sachs might hang himself as a result. Brand and Ross then left a string of messages to apologise for what was "just a joke", but continued to leave rude voicemails.

Following the broadcast and backlash, the BBC launched a review of how the pre-recorded episode was allowed to go on air. The Beeb said in a statement: "We have received a letter of complaint from Mr Sachs' agent and would like to sincerely apologise to Mr Sachs for the offence caused. We recognise that some of the content broadcast was unacceptable and offensive. We are reviewing how this came about and are responding to Mr Sachs personally. We also apologise to listeners for any offence caused."

Russell also apologised to Sachs the week after on his radio show. He said: "I would like to take this opportunity to issue a personal Russell Brand apology to Andrew Sachs, the great comic actor who played Manuel, for a message Jonathan and I left on his answerphone, but it was quite funny. But sometimes you mustn't swear on someone's answerphone, and that is why I would like to apologise personally."

The scandal, which led to Brand and Ross being suspended, and also Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas resigning, hit Andrew hard, and he didn’t speak to Georgina for eight years. Sachs passed away in 2016 at the age of 86 from vascular dementia.